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The Photo Agency of the Future: Molly Gottschalk on Instagram for Artsy January 5, 2017

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Metaphor Online , trackback

Molly Gottschalk is writing editorials for Artsy and stamping her intellect on photography. While studying at Savannah College of Art and Design, working toward her photography degree,  she was selected to work as an assistant for the legendary David LaChapelle. As if that weren’t incredible enough, her position turned into a two year stint as LaChapelle’s muse, where she not only honed her craft, but found her way into creative direction and professional styling.

She has touched on understanding issues that are important to photography and none more so than the rise of the smart phone in creating a brave new world of journalism.

To read the complete article go the link at the bottom of this post. Definitely food for thought.

 

 

Photo David Guttenfelder

FROM NORTH KOREA TO BALTIMORE, INSTAGRAM IS FOSTERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PHOTOJOURNALISTS

ARTSY EDITORIAL

BY MOLLY GOTTSCHALK

JANUARY 21 2016

February 13, 2010. Marjah, Afghanistan. A troop-carrying helicopter drops acclaimed American photojournalist David Guttenfelder into the front lines of the then-biggest American air assault in the war against Al Qaeda. Seeing the Marines that surround him snapping photos on their smartphones, he drops his DSLR, reaches for the iPhone 3G (his first) in the pocket of his flak jacket, and begins shooting photos, hoping to mimic the intimacy of those the soldiers were sending back home.

“They weren’t taking the kinds of pictures that I was taking, news photography; they were photographing their own life and this huge experience in their life. So I started shooting with my phone, too….

When Guttenfelder picked up his phone, he broke all the rules of traditional photojournalism—and, by some accounts pushed forward a medium that has been evolving since its inception. Six years later, extemporaneous documentation for journalistic use (and via selfie) has become the norm and Guttenfelder, with 854,000 followers on Instagram—the mobile image- and video-sharing app that has swelled to over 400 million users—is something of a new-tech godfather in the field. But having spent 20 years covering conflict overseas for the Associated Press, in the beginning carrying chemicals on his back, developing film in the field, and hanging it to dry on clotheslines, the photojournalist knows well the history of his craft.

During World War II, photographers carried weighty 4×5 cameras and hitchhiked to rush-deliver unseen film; in Vietnam, film from Leicas and Nikons was wrapped in condoms to keep it safe from the swamps; and at the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, still-nascent digital photography invited massive logistics operations that used body bags to transport hundreds of pounds of gear. Now, a smartphone paired with Instagram—both a camera and a publishing platform—has freed up photographer time and stamina, and marked a shifting paradigm for documentary photography, forging new opportunities for photographers of all ilk, all over the world.

Photo David Guttenfelder

Teru Kuwayama, from Instagram’s image-sharing app says“I look at my Instagram feed and it’s a network; I’m seeing through the eyes of people around the world” . Following two decades as a noted photojournalist, covering war and humanitarian crises in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir, the TED Senior Fellow now works on the community team at Instagram, specifically with photojournalists and the wider photo community. “So many eyes and so many minds are coming online and being harnessed to this grid,” he says. For Kuwayama, this collective network and its unprecedented audience serves as the greatest draw for his involvement. “It’s unlocked a totally different spectrum of reporting,” he says.

Communities in certain corners of the world like North Korea aren’t just creating content but, in many cases, consuming uncensored images of their reality and of their country for the first time. Following his stint embedded in Afghanistan, David Guttenfelder went to the DPRK capital of Pyongyang in 2011 to help set up a bureau for  AP, the first of any Western news agency. “This is a country that was completely isolated; there’s not been photography from there. It’s all been propaganda distributed by the state,” he says. “There’s no communication allowed. It’s a total black hole.”

DavidGuttenfelder has made over 40 trips to the country since 2000 and is one of the first and only Western photojournalists to be granted regular access. Now, he has used his iPhone to shine a mini LED flash into the abyss. Instagramming from the streets of Pyongyang was “like throwing a window open on a totally unknown place,” says the photographer. “It was more powerful than any of the traditional ways that I used to publish, because you’re not just publishing at people; people go with you into the field, they follow you there, and you take them along for the ride.” Rather than the heavily censored portrayal of their world through government-controlled media outlets, for the first time locals were seeing a journalist represent their country as they knew it to be. “They said, ‘Follow this guy on Instagram. He’s unlike the mainstream media; he’s showing the real North Korea.’”

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-why-the-world-s-leading-photojournalists-are-ditching-their-dslrs-to-shoot-on-instagram

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